Celebrating Milestones on the Path to Scale: Experiences from WIN 2.0

Seeing ambitious goals come to life through smart, context-driven solutions with the potential to transform the lives of women, that’s worth celebrating. The Women IN Business (WIN) program—a market systems development initiative implemented by TechnoServe and funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Mozambique— has done just that. In partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries (Ministério da Agricultura, Ambiente e Pescas – MAAP), WIN has co-designed and piloted new training manuals designed to better meet rural women farmers’ needs. Through strategic partnerships WIN 2.0 has also collaborated with MAAP to secure the ministries’ commitment to continue to invest in women farmers, codified in their updated Gender Strategy.

In Mozambique, women represent the majority of the agricultural labor force, making up 63% of the unskilled workforce (World Bank 2026). In central and northern Mozambique women farmers are approximately 21 percent less productive than men (Morgado and Salvucci 2016). This gap in productivity is shaped by women’s limited access to agricultural extension services to learn and adopt new techniques to improve productivity. It’s estimated that only 21 percent of women farmers in Mozambique have been reached by agricultural extension services (World Bank 2021). The updated agricultural training manuals developed under WIN are already starting to close this critical gap. During the pilot phase, frontline extension workers trained 7,752 smallholder farmers (76% women) across 12 districts.

The MAAP Gender Strategy also marks significant progress to advance women’s economic empowerment, with the potential to influence positive changes in rural women’s lives for years to come. MAAP’s updated Gender Strategy provides the long-term formal commitment for initiatives, like the updated agricultural training manuals, to reach and support women to access the critical services they need to secure financial stability and food security.

We are incredibly proud of our achievements within the Ministry. Having worked through a change of government and several changes in directors, to have been able to successfully finalize the Gender Strategy and streamline three new manuals within the MAAP extensionist curriculum across the country, is a feat in itself. We hope these changes continue to have a positive impact on women and men smallholder farmers for years to come, contributing to a more inclusive, fair and commercially oriented agriculture sector.

Sarah Bove, Program Director of WIN

WIN’s highly collaborative, consultative and practical approach ensured that the manuals were grounded in the realities and needs of women. This initial step of consulting women about their challenges was critical to ensure the approach would engage and truly support women. WIN also devised a dissemination plan in collaboration with MAAP and partners to ensure trainers would be equipped to encourage women to attend training and effectively communicate key messages and practices.

Based on these consultations with women, government actors, and partners, WIN led the development of specialized curriculum manuals covering Gender Equality, Climate-Resilient Agriculture, and Rural Finance. A Training of Trainers (ToT) model was used to roll out the training. So far 100 district-level public extension workers (SDAE) have been trained on the new curriculum. The Ministry has committed over $600,000 to streamline this training of trainers across the country in September 2026 and it is expected that it will cover around additional 500 extensionists and reach more 900.000 Smallholder farmers totalling nearly 1million SHFs assisted with the new curriculum. By equipping these frontline extension workers with practical resources that respond to women’s needs, they are in a better position to drive meaningful change across rural Mozambique’s districts.

Developing these manuals was a real joint effort with MAAP and our partners, and it pushed us to work differently. Bringing a gender lens into the facilitation model took a lot of effort, but also a lot of conviction. We wanted tools that would help communities pay closer attention to gender and be easier for extension workers to apply. When we trained the trainers, I could see that effort becoming something real, a methodology I believe will truly help extensionists drive change in their communities.

Orizio Matos, WIN Business Advisor

As of March 2026, 7,752 smallholder farmers across 12 districts have been trained. Significantly, 5,922 of those farmers are women. In rural Mozambique, where women face significant barriers to access extension and advisory services to improve their livelihoods these results from the pilot are extremely promising. This result demonstrates to government actors and communities that investing in strategies which respond to what women need as farmers will pay off. Hopefully this will continue to spur investments by MAAP and partners to bring the updated Gender Strategy to life.

There are few women who make decisions about production in the community; the men are the ones who sell the produce and decide what percentage to give to the women. When women take the lead, there are conflicts at home. Therefore, the gender manual can help raise awareness that women should be part of family decision-making regarding production, when to sell, and income management.

Deyzes Paiva, WIN Market Systems Manager

This milestone, reaching nearly 6,000 women farmers with extension services, is a significant achievement. But more broadly, what this work represents is the promise of systemic change that has the potential to have lasting positive impact on women, their families, and communities across Mozambique.

References:

• Morgado, João, and Vincenzo Salvucci. 2016. Gender Divide in Agricultural Productivity in Mozambique. WIDER Working Paper 2016/176. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER. https://igmozambique.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Working-paper/wp2016-176.pdf
• World Bank. 2021. Closing the Gender Gap in Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in Mozambique. Policy Note. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/fa15b6c8-b177-5318-8401-209fd8c87640/content
• World Bank. 2026. Mozambique – Sustainable Rural Economy Program (MozRural): Implementation Status and Results Report. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099805109202227380/pdf/BOSIB-de116040-cc83-4391-9c52-4fcdeb0fdd67.pdf